Secondly,w hat I want to see is a place where I can network with like or semi-like minded church based IT folks.

By church based I mean anybody who attends a church and believes technology can only help. Trouble is, I personally feel the need to bounce ideas of the “how do I get the pastor to follow this” rather than the actual how-to’s of technology. I would also like it to have British slant as I know of very few fellow church IT folks in my area and those I do know are very narrow minded.

Keep blogging all of you – I need it if nobody else.

You know we’re going to have a roundtable at Church of the Resurrection, Oct. 2-4. That will be the next opportunity to discuss the points you’re raising while there is a large group of like-minded folks in one room. Please come. To indicate interest, post a comment on our blog:
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/03/fall-it-roundtable-invitation.html

I agree with much of what you’re saying. I want to keep the structure simple, the cost low, and use blogs and RSS to aggregate content. That’s why I started a church IT blogroll. See:
http://appianway.blogspot.com/2007/04/church-it-blogroll.html

I also undrestand the passion to meet with people with whom I connect. I believe this is natural, and I don’t want to get in the way of that. Still, you and Jason now have an audience that extends beyond that smaller circle of friends. You are one of the few ministry folks with enough influence and reach to do something more significant in pulling together the islands. Depending on what you architect, it is possible that with very little overhead you could create something that is repeatable.

So, many of my ideas fall in line with the ideas that come out of open source like reuse, merit-based valuation, collaboration and contribution, and all [problems] are [conquerable] with enough [people]. Please take my ideas as encouragement more than criticism. I think something larger and more meaningful is possible here, with not significantly more work effort.

- Tony

I’m really struggling with the paradox of what it seems we’re all trying to do. “invite more people” and “keep it small.” “have a structure” and “keep it informal.” Local AND National (and international). So…even if I seem to be saying things that differ with your direction here, believe me, I’m not disagreeing! Just looking at lots of options.

Please keep on pushing us all. A community is forming. We just don’t know what it looks like yet.

But, I think I am missing something. I thought Twitter was more about managing presence than about aggregating content.

Seems to me that a Digg like approach does the same thing in terms of humans recommending knowledge, but with more findability and discovery based on vertical interest (via tags like “Microsoft Licensing” or “ChMS”).

I am toying with using twitter to create an interconnected ‘instant ad-hoc’ collaboration space for church technologists.

Robert Scoble (blogger) does this well with a few thousand of the valley’s top innovators. Maybe we can too.?

Check it out and pass the word, if we all become friends in twitter, then we can post questions and get semi-instant intelligence right away. Fun. Effective,. Cheap.

My twitter rss is also on the twitter home page … http://twitter.com/ericbusby

I really like your thinking Jason.

eric [at] saddleback [dot] com

Eric – Thanks for the vote of confidence. Never been to foo or bar (I would love to go), but I am enjoying Refresh and hope to get to a DemoCamp soon. I was a Communications Major at Baylor and we studied group formation, dynamics, and communication. OpenSpaceTechnology is the best unconference startup kit out there in my opinion. The only thing it doesn’t cover is how to use blogs and wikis alongside the meetings. Sure, I’ll go to NYC with ya next month, all you have to do is hire me and pay my travel expenses. LOL

Have you been to foocamp or barcamp? I was just at the web 2 expo last week and there was an unconference there in the afternoons.

I am considering going to an SES show next, or SEO Class, but it is a bit expensive at $3k. They might give me a break as a non-profit… anyone interested in going to NYC next month with me?